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A parody seems to be behind an effort to resurrect Enron, the vitality firm that exemplified the worst in American company fraud and greed after it went bankrupt in 2001.
If its return is comedic, some former workers who misplaced every thing in Enron’s collapse aren’t laughing.
“It’s a fairly sick joke and it disparages the those that did work there. And why would you need to even convey it again up once more?” stated former Enron worker Diana Peters, who represented staff within the firm’s chapter proceedings.
What’s Enron?
As soon as the nation’s seventh-largest firm, Enron filed for chapter safety on Dec. 2, 2001, after years of accounting tips might not conceal billions of {dollars} in debt or make failing ventures seem worthwhile. The vitality firm’s collapse put greater than 5,000 folks out of labor, worn out greater than $2 billion in worker pensions and rendered $60 billion in Enron inventory nugatory. Its aftershocks have been felt all through the vitality sector.
Twenty-four Enron executives, together with former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, have been ultimately convicted for his or her roles within the fraud. Enron founder Key Lay’s convictions have been vacated after he died of coronary heart illness following his 2006 trial.
On Monday — the twenty third anniversary of the chapter submitting — an organization representing itself as Enron introduced in a information launch that it was relaunching as a “firm devoted to fixing the worldwide vitality disaster.” It additionally posted a video on social media, marketed on not less than one Houston billboard and a took out a full-page advert within the Houston Chronicle
Within the minute-long video that was filled with generic company jargon, the corporate talks about “progress” and “rebirth.” It ends with the phrases, “We’re again. Can we discuss?”
Enron’s new web site options an organization retailer, the place numerous gadgets that includes the model’s tilted “E” emblem are on the market, together with a $118 hoodie.
In an e-mail, firm spokesperson Will Chabot stated the brand new Enron was not doing any interviews but, however that “We’ll have extra to share quickly.”
Indicators level to the comeback being a joke.
Within the “phrases of use and circumstances of sale” on the corporate’s web site, it says “the data on the web site about Enron is First Modification protected parody, represents efficiency artwork, and is for leisure functions solely.”
Paperwork filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace present that Faculty Firm, an Arkansas-based LLC, owns the Enron trademark. The co-founder of Faculty Firm is Connor Gaydos, who helped create a joke conspiracy idea that claims all birds are literally surveillance drones for the federal government.
Peters stated that since studying in regards to the “relaunch” of Enron, she has spoken with a number of different former workers and they’re additionally upset by it. She stated the obvious stunt was “in poor style.”
“If it’s a joke, it’s impolite, extraordinarily impolite. And I hope that they understand it and apologize to the entire Enron workers,” Peters stated.
Peters, who’s 74 years previous, stated she continues to be working in data know-how as a result of “I misplaced every thing in Enron, and so my Social Safety doesn’t at all times maintain issues I want executed.”
“Enron’s downfall taught us important classes about company ethics, accountability, and the results of unchecked ambition. Enron’s legacy was the workers within the trenches. Depart Enron buried,” she stated.
#Enron #workers #arent #laughing
The Unbiased
#Enron #workers #arent #laughing
Juan A. Lozano , 2024-12-04 08:51:00
